Do the occupiers have any clue what the hell Frederick Douglass stood for? It seems they don’t.

“We absolutely need demands,” said Shawn Redden, 35, an earnest history teacher in the group. “Like Frederick Douglass said, ‘Power concedes nothing without a demand.’ ”

The influence and staying power of Occupy Wall Street are undeniable: similar movements have sprouted around the world, as the original group enters its fifth week in the financial district. Yet a frequent criticism of the protesters has been the absence of specific policy demands.

Mr. Redden and other demonstrators formed the Demands Working Group about a week and a half ago, hoping to identify specific actions they would formally ask local and federal governments to adopt. But the very nature of Occupy Wall Street has made that task difficult, in New York and elsewhere.

Although Occupy Seattle has a running tally of votes on its Web site — 395 votes to “nationalize the Federal Reserve,” 138 for “universal education” and 245 to “end corporate personhood,” for example — Mike Hines, a member of the group, said the list would soon be removed because the provisions had not been clearly explained and because some people were not capable of voting online.

It’s amazing how quickly these occupiers realize their anarchist whims are not particularly useful, and turn to–gasp, organization–to achieve their ends. I wonder if they think their organizations deserve free speech rights! Gasp! And if their organizations require the use of technological communication channels–devices created by corporations. Gasp!

I saw a bunch of these occupiers in Freedom Plaza across the street from city hall in D.C. the other day. I still am confused.